TOWARDS STRENGTHENED GOVERNANCE OF THE SHARED TRANSBOUNDARY NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE LAKE OHRID REGION Baseline Assessment of the Lake Ohrid region - Albania IUCN – ICOMOS joint draft report January 2016 Contents ........................................................................................................................................................................... i A. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................... 1 B. The study area ........................................................................................................................................... 5 B.1 The physical environment ............................................................................................................. 5 B.2 The biotic environment ................................................................................................................. 7 B.3 Cultural Settings ............................................................................................................................ 0 C. Heritage values and resources/ attributes ................................................................................................ 6 C.1 Natural heritage values and resources ......................................................................................... 6 C.2 Cultural heritage values and resources....................................................................................... 12 D. Current state of conservation of heritage values and resources ............................................................ 16 D.1 Natural values and resources ...................................................................................................... 16 D.2 State of conservation of cultural heritage .................................................................................. 21 E. Legal & institutional framework/Protection and legislative designations .............................................. 22 E.1 Natural heritage protection legislation and policy and responsible institutions ....................... 22 E.2 Legislation for the protection of cultural heritage ..................................................................... 27 E.3 Spatial planning legislation and policy and responsible institutions .......................................... 29 E.4 Agriculture .................................................................................................................................. 31 F.1 Socio-economic analysis of current situation ........................................................................................ 33 F.1.1 Population ................................................................................................................................... 33 F.1.3 Services and infrastructure ......................................................................................................... 34 F.1.4 Main Economic activities ................................................................................................................ 34 F.2 Potentials and opportunities for future development .......................................................................... 39 F.2.1 Agriculture .................................................................................................................................. 39 F.2.2 Tourism and heritage .................................................................................................................. 44 G Conclusions and recommendations ......................................................................................................... 53 G.1 Natural values ............................................................................................................................. 53 G.2 Cultural heritage values .............................................................................................................. 54 G.2 Agriculture .................................................................................................................................. 56 G.3 Forestry ....................................................................................................................................... 56 G.4 Tourism ....................................................................................................................................... 57 References ................................................................................................................................................... 59 Annexes ....................................................................................................................................................... 66 ANNEX I: The vascular plants of Lake Ohrid ............................................................................................ 67 ANNEX II: List of fishes in the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ....................................................................... 69 i ANNEX III: List of amphibia and reptiles in the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ............................................. 70 ANNEX IV: List of bird species in the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ....................................................... 71 ANNEX V: Preliminary list of mammals in the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ....................................... 73 ANNEX VI: List of endemic taxa in Lake Ohrid (source: MoEPP 2003) .................................................. 74 ANNEX VII: Endemic diatoms from Lake Ohrid (source: Levkov and Williams 2012) ............................ 79 ANNEX VIII: Invertebrate species of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region ................... 81 ANNEX IX: Fishes of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region .............................................. 83 ANNEX X: Amphibians and reptiles of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region ................ 84 ANNEX XI: Bird species of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region .......................................... 85 ANNEX XII: Mammals of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region ............................................ 88 ANNEX XIII: Vascular plants of conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region ................................... 89 ANNEX XIV: Grassland habitat types of European conservation interest in the Albanian part of Lake Ohrid region ........................................................................................................................................................... 91 ANNEX XV: Evaluation of most important geological and geomorphological features in the Albanian part of Lake Ohrid watershed (Shumka, 2015) ........................................................................................... 92 ANNEX XVI: Conservation concerns and associated major threats identified for Lake Ohrid (source: Kostovski et al., 2010) .................................................................................................................................. 93 ANNEX XVII: Results from the SWOT Analysis Workshop (21 August 2015, Pogradec) ...................... 94 ANNEX XVIII: Proposed zoning for the Terrestrial and Aquatic Territory of Pogradec Protected Landscape 99 ANNEX XIX: Assessment of the institutional arrangements and policy instruments for natural and cultural resources management in the Lake Ohrid region –Albania ......................................................... 100 ANNEX XX: Basic principles and the legal framework on territorial (spatial) planning in Albania .. 104 ANNEX XXI: Basic demographic data on the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ....................................... 106 ANNEX XXII: Basic economic data on the Lake Ohrid region in Albania ............................................ 107 ii List of tables Table 1 Biodiversity and endemism of Lake Ohrid ............................................................................................ 8 Table 2 Numbers of taxa recorded from both Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa and their watersheds (source: Levkov & Williams, 2012) ..................................................................................................................... 8 Table 3 Comparison of numbers of diatom taxa in ancient or large lakes (source: Levkov & Williams, 2012) 9 Table 4 Overview of the total number of species conservation importance in the Lake Ohrid region .......... 11 Table 5 The present annual economic value of ecosystem services in the Albanian part of Lake Ohrid region (source: Shumka, 2015) ...................................................................................................................... 12 Table 6 Assessment of threats to Lake Ohrid using the IUCN-CMP classification of threats (source: Kostovski et al., 2010) ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Table 7 Extraction of minerals ......................................................................................................................... 38 Table 8 Typical primary products identified in Korcë region ........................................................................... 42 iii List of Figures Figure 1 Geology of the Lake Ohrid basin (source: Hoffmann, 2014) ..................................................................... 6 Figure 2 The Albanian part of the Lake Ohrid watershed (source: Shumka 2015) .................................................